


Physics - Couldn't Be Simpler

by Fr0st6yte



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, John's in danger again, because I'm a nerd, coz I also enjoy some good ol' drama, extended physics discussions, go figure, massive amounts of guilt, though John's descent is definitely not accurate, yes that's John's quote but I'm repurposing it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 14:38:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11899833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fr0st6yte/pseuds/Fr0st6yte
Summary: A very different situation at the Hadron Collider. A series of minor rescues in the area had left Thunderbirds Five hovering over Geneva.There’s a new urgency to the Thunderbirds fixing the gravity well.





	Physics - Couldn't Be Simpler

**Author's Note:**

> #this was literally churned out in like half an hour #so don’t expect something world breaking #just a little bit of Alan for y'all #and John in danger? #what. a. surprise

“I’m sending an alert out to the GDF. They’ll clear the airways over Switzerland. There’s nothing in low orbit. The gravity well shouldn’t - whoa!”

Alan’s head snapped up from where he paced, even as he heard Scott’s voice demand, “Thunderbird 5! What’s wrong?”

There wasn’t an immediate answer and Virgil joined in on hailing the astronaut. “Five?”

“Brains,” John’s voice was tight. At least, tight for John. That is to say that he could barely tell. Alan imagined that not even the sun exploding 4 billion years too soon would shake his brother. Asphyxiating in space barely made him hesitate, and the pressure of 25Gs was walked off like any other day. “We need that solve. Fast.”

“What’s the situation?” Scott’s voice was snappier than it’d been in a while and Alan felt dread creeping up his throat. “Thunderbird Five, now!”

“Remember those rescues we had in the area after the earthquake yesterday? Well I hadn’t turned off Five’s boosters yet, so I could check in with the local authorities.”

“You better not be saying what I’m thinking I’m saying,” Virgil warned.

John’s voice was grim. “Five was still hovering over Geneva.”

“Was?” Alan’s voice was almost shrill but he barely noticed. John couldn’t have meant -

“Thunderbird Five’s coming down unless you get rid of the well.”

Alan shook his head, refusing to believe this. “You’re in geosynchronous orbit! That’s over 22,000 miles high! Gravity can’t do that!”

_Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not powerful._ He recalled some of his physics lessons. Four fundamental forces. Electromagnetism, strong, weak, and _gravity._ He gulped. Powerful indeed. 

“What could create a well that powerful?”He directed the last question to Brains, who shook his head, looking just as concerned and confused as Alan felt.

“I-I don’t kn-know.”

“I think I might.” Alan whipped around to face Moffie, having completely forgotten she was there. She walked over to the controls for the Collider, hands wringing nervously. “Ever since the Supreme Hadron Collider went online, we’ve been registering localized gravitational anomalies. That’s why I asked you here.”

“But the idea of a graviton generator inducing a gravity well is only a theory!”

“Guys,” Alan fought back a growl. “We need to solve this now!”

“Activating the Collider was enough to create the right conditions for a well.”

No, that Alan refused to believe. “No, that can’t be it. That means… This is my fault?”

He didn’t even hear Brains’ reply. He felt sick, heart hammering. John was plummeting towards Earth in an uncontrolled dive all because he was feeling bored.

“Shut it down!” He was nearly shouting, voice high and panicked. “Shut it all down!”

Brains turned the comms back on and announced, “Hadron Collider’s offline. Five, can you get a new gravity reading?”

Silence greeted his statement, and Alan started forward, eyes wide with hope and worry, the first vanishing when he heard his brother’s voice declaring the presence of the gravity well.

“But… but we shut it down!”

Moffie’s voice was low. “It’s become self-sustaining.”

No no no. He didn’t even realize he was muttering it out loud, eyes stuck on the new graph on the screen - Five’s fall.

“John, you’re going to burn up in the atmosphere! I’m coming over to pull you up!”

“Negative Thunderbird One. You’ll just come down with us.” John’s voice was steady, but it didn’t break the utter dread and guilt Alan was feeling.

“Brains, solve this,” Virgil demanded.

The comms went dead again.

Brains was talking again, but Alan wasn’t listening. He was still staring at the screens. 21800 miles. Not even ten minutes and 200 miles. How could it be that strong? How could Alan have started something so catastrophic? John had told him to be careful before they got here. The older Tracy had wanted to come, Alan knew, but the follow-up with the German authorities had been more important and no one else had been particularly interested but Alan had promised to watch what he was doing because John would be devastated if a physics experiment was postponed due to Alan’s idiocy and he hadn’t been careful and look what had happened -

His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden reminder of space.

It was instinctual for his body to re-orient himself in the lack of gravity, but neither Brains nor Moffie had the experience he had. They both started flailing before their minds caught up to the situation. Brains quickly called on the training that they all undertook when starting IR, and helped Moffie calm herself too, though she continued to look a bit green at the sudden change.

Oh God it was all his fault.

Cause and affect. Physics was all about controlled environments. Include an anomaly like Alan and -

He tried to tune back to what Brains was saying but only caught the tailend of his speech. “… onsite.”

“Huh?”

“The Collider. We’ve got to turn it off manually.”

Finally something he could do.

“I’ll go do it.”

“Alan, no! Gravity’s lessening here, but out there, it’s increased a hundredfold.”

“Maybe I can get to it in the pod.”

“The pod’s hull won’t survive the intense gravitational pull!”

Alan felt his guilt and horror well up into anger. “Then what do we do!?”

Brains wasn’t even fazed. “A procedure like this would require a vehicle that’s been structurally reinforced. Something compact, built to withstand environments of extreme pressure.” A pause where Alan floated impatiently. Pressure didn’t exist in space. It was a vacuum. Controlled and devoid and impenetrable. “I know just the thing!”

Even with John’s life at stake, Gordon couldn’t stop his mouth. Alan ignored his complaints, focusing on John’s charts again. 21000 already. It’d only get faster from there, as the gravity increased tenfold every second. G = 9.8. Or was it km1m2/r^2? 

“Gordon, just get down there,” Scott finally snapped. Magically, Gordon stopped grumbling and let Virgil lower him down.

“It’s just like fishing in a barrel.”

“And I’m at the end of the hook.” Okay so maybe he didn’t stop protesting completely, but Alan could easily block him out. 20500.

Was acceleration constant? No, G’s changing. Kinematics doesn’t apply here.

John had closed out his comms to the rest of the team, though Alan was sure he was listening in to everything. Alan wasn’t sure whether he’d be able to just sit and listen to the others make a last ditch effort to rescue him, if he was the one free falling towards Earth.

“Bad news, guys.” Virgil’s voice broke the silence that had descended over the team, as they waited for a status report from Gordon.

Scott’s voice was getting more and more strident with every word he forced out throughout this endeavor. “Two?”

“I’m caught in the gravity well.” Even as he said it, Alan watched the image of Two as it fell twenty feet.

Alan felt his heart rise again as Gordon yelped over the comms when Four got banged around.

“I’m taking a pod,” he declared, already moving. He ignored Brains protests, just barking a quick, “It’s better than being stuck in here,” behind him. Hearing the silence behind him, he fought back low snarl. Another thing to be guilty over. He’d apologize to Brains later.

John was still quiet over the comms, and Alan quickly pulled himself into the pod, flying up to the edge of the well, a hundred feet above Two. A downward drop. Enough height so he wouldn’t fly past his target. Taking a deep breath, he plunged forward, struggling against the controls as the tiny pod instantly feel forty feet.

Managing to stabilize himself temporarily, he sent a line down to the green monstrosity beneath him and heaved upwards.

“Get out of here, Alan. That tiny thing isn’t helping anyone.”

Alan ignored how the barb struck his heart and continued pulling up, initiating maximum thrust. It was only after Scott arrived and quietly informed them all that he got them covered that Alan stopped. He kept the line connected to Two, only this time to make sure he didn’t fly away because of the well. It was pulling him down and he was practically sitting on top of the other plane now.

The fact that he couldn’t check on John’s condition in the pod cemented his irritation, and the argument over the comms wasn’t helping. He was just a second behind Gordon as he brusquely said, “There’s no time for debate! We’ve got to do something, now!”

Brains and Moffie were quiet, and Alan felt his fear rising again, pushing past his anger. No, they couldn’t be out of ideas. Not now. He strained to hear anything - Scott or Virgil - someone with something. But no. Even Gordon was quiet after his statement.

He racked his brain, panic making his hands shake. Manually. Shut it down manually. What could stop something so huge? Unbidden, a law he learned long ago came to mind: A force in motion…

“Gordon!” he suddenly shouted. “Your water nets - you still have them loaded into Four, right?”

He had his immediate older brother had always been on the same page. “Their speed at this distance…” he murmured. “Alan, you got it!”

A second later, a boom and flash later, and the situation was over. Alan fell back in his seat, relief slowly getting overshadowed by guilt. Suddenly, John’s voice was ringing through the comms. “Situation averted.” Alan knew he wasn’t imagining the relief in his brother’s voice. “Gravity returning to normal.” A pause. “Thanks guys.”

And then, a message over a private comm, because John was a force of his own, breaking his brothers’ thoughts, even ~~22000~~ 20000 miles up. “You did good, Alan.”


End file.
